Master Data Management in Practice: Achieving True Customer MDM

Defining the Business Case

Why is MDM important? Quite simply, MDM not only gives companies the opportunity to better manage their key data assets and thereby improve the overall value and utility the data provides internally, but it also exposes internal process issues and business practices (or lack thereof) that are the underlying constraints to having and maintaining good data. Often, these underlying issues are generally known, but it's not until an MDM initiative is launched that the various business teams can or will start effectively addressing the issues. Looking at this from a Customer MDM point of view, the lack of having well-orchestrated data management practices will typically result in one or more of the following risks:

• Increased costs due to operational and data redundancies or differences across lines of business.
• Higher risk of audits and regulatory violations.
• Poorer BI and analytics, adding to customer frustration and missed opportunities.
• Customer/partner/vendor/employee dissatisfaction and consequently unrealized revenues.
• Possible overpayment of vendors and customers stemming from duplicate records.
• Over or under delivery of customer services due to inconsistent customer identity and tracking.

MDM does much more than just bring data together. It involves an entire set of processes, services, and policies that go along with it. Most MDM experts agree that the three main reasons used to justify an MDM implementation are cost reduction, risk management, and ...